broken and poured out

July 7, 2007

You fellow free spirits,

Paz y amor from the Finca! I hope and pray that you all are well in heart, mind and soul. Another week down… another week of crazy stories, struggles and joys, and so much laughter. We continue to be open to moments of grace and adventure… to empty and be filled by our Abba who molds us carefully with His very hands.

Last week our kids were on summer vacation, and Cassidy and I took advantage of the break from teaching to take an impromptu weekend trip to the Caribbean island of Utila. It was everything you'd expect… a quaint little island full of divers, cheap hotels and a beautiful, totally free spirits. While I very much enjoyed having a few days to relax, snorkel, kayak, and eat non-rationed food, I found myself really missing the mainland and especially the Finca kids. There is something so absolutely beautiful, so slow, so "carinoso" about the heart of Latin America. After a pretty intense journey back to Trujillo (including a bus crash and subsequent hitch-hiking to town with two Columbian men in the back of a Camery) I couldn't have been happier to hop in the back of the Finca truck with twenty kids and two chickens (seriously) and head home.


Earlier this week, I was also victim to the "gripe" (don't worry, Mom, just a cold) which is a lot more fun to say in Spanish but a lot less fun to have without the comforts of medicine, air conditioning and cold things to drink. Luckily, I was able to ease back into teaching with just a few classes on Monday and Tuesday, which gave me time to recuperate. On Wednesday, we celebrated July 4 th in style at the vol house with a feast of "hamburgers" grilled on the fagon, potato salad, watermelon and sugar cookies for dinner. The simple pleasures of life…

And while I am immensely grateful for my freedom as an American, I am learning more and more about a deeper freedom… one that comes from knowing who I am in God's eyes. This freedom allows me to laugh, to cry, to sing, to dance, to hug children, to be so very real. I live freedom as I am utterly dominated in a game of "futbol" with the House 5 boys, as I sit quietly in prayer, as I listen to the sounds of children laughing across the campo under a star-spilt sky.

And we continue to grow in faith, hope, and especially love. C.S. Lewis writes, "To love at all is to be vulnerable." Vulnerable, indeed. We learn to put our hearts on the line daily as we open ourselves completely to risk to love. And so we risk, and often experience, immense pain… through dealing with a tough 5 th grader for an hour, through facing the reality of life for our neighbors, through seeing the deep sadness in a child's past. But love is patient and kind, and endures all things… so we cling to the conviction that love wins, and so we experience something so deeply beautiful. Before this summer, we were told about a "Finca flavor of love". There is, indeed, something special about this place… it is a place of brokenness and healing, of light laughter and salty tears, of simplicity and community and living life the way it was meant to be lived. I, too, am being transformed to love in this way. I open and empty, and somehow continue to be filled… by little voices that sing, little hands to hold, and by the everlasting love of my Father.

Thank you so much for your life-giving, hope-bringing encouragement and prayer. I feel the grace- His grace- being poured out on me as I seek to open, empty, and be filled, over and over again. May His freedom give your soul the freedom to sing loudly and dance lightly this week and always.

Celebrate life.
Erin